1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mitigating tape media damage. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for restoring tape media to the center of a tape guide roller.
2. Background of the Invention
Magnetic tape media, including reel and cassette-style cartridges and other devices that use magnetic media, are used in many industries to store data, programs, and other information. Magnetic tape media is typically stored on reels or spools, which are cylinders about which the tape media is wound, typically having flanges to guide the tape media onto the cylinder. The spools may be housed in a cassette or cartridge to protect the tape and increase the ease of handling. Accessing information from a reel or spool of tape media typically requires that the spool be inserted into a reading machine, which unwinds the tape media from the file spool, through a plurality of tape guide rollers and a read/write head and winds it onto a temporary storage spool (also referred to as a machine reel or machine spool) until the portion of the tape media with the desired information is reached. The temporary storage spool may either be external to the cassette (single reel) or integrated into the cassette (double reel). A magnetic read element reads the information, and, for the single reel cassette, the tape media is rewound back onto the original file spool and removed from the reader. For the double reel cassette, the tape is often parked halfway between the ends of the tape before being removed.
On a typical machine that is reading magnetic tape media, the tape guide rollers that control the tape media path have hard stops on each side of the roller. The spacing between the hard stops of the tape guide rollers is wider than the nominal width of the tape media. As the tape media is fed onto these tape guide rollers with hard stops, lateral tape media motion may occur during a start or stop operation, and edge damage may result. If the edge damage is severe, track following capability may be lost and the head to tape media spacing may increase to the point where data cannot be read back. In the most severe case the tape can break, leading to catastrophic failure.
As the thickness of tape media continues to get thinner, the tape media will be more prone to edge damage. A solution to lessen tape media damage would be to eliminate the occurrence of the tape media wearing against the hard stops of the tape guide roller. One such technique includes using tape guide rollers that are continuously curved and exerts a force to the tape media during a lateral shift, which returns the tape media to a properly aligned position, thereby minimizing the potential for tape media edge damage. However, due to the continuously curved roller, the tape media is under constant tension or compression, which can lead to edge damage.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have an apparatus for controlling the position of a magnetic tape media within a reading machine to mitigate tape media edge damage.